Stage 5



Dan Lloyd had to work hard to get in the breakaway. The first attack with Lloyd in it failed and another attack went instead. He had to make a 2nd smaller attack and along with Fofonov, he dragged himself up to the break, and even distanced them a little by the top of the first KoM.

Lloyd would take enough KoM points today to take the jersey

On the final climb, Gesink led the attacks from the favourites.


And the Dutchman made the strongest attack


But Contador was able to pull himself up to Gesink


Rasmussen, Gomez Marchante, Gerdemann and Kloden formed a group behind but would not catch up to Contador and Gesink.


In the sprint, Gesink had nothing left to give. So another win for Contador.


1 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 4h28'32
2 Robert Gesink RABOBANK s.t.
3 Michael Rasmussen DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 50
4 Linus Gerdemann QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
5 Andreas Klöden LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
6 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC s.t.
7 Roman Kreuziger LIQUIGAS + 1'49
8 Michael Rogers T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
9 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 3'18
10 Alexander Efimkin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
11 David Moncoutié COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
12 Matija Kvasina PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
13 Kim Kirchen T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
14 Paolo Savoldelli EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
15 Maxim Iglinskiy TEAM ASTANA s.t.
16 Steve Zampieri COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
17 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
18 David Millar DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
19 Markus Fothen GEROLSTEINER s.t.
20 Cyril Dessel AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
21 Matthew Lloyd PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
22 Xavi Tondo TEAM ASTANA s.t.
23 Theo Eltink SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
24 Toni Colom TEAM ASTANA s.t.
25 Cadel Evans RABOBANK s.t.
26 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC s.t.
27 Eduardo Gonzalo AGRITUBEL s.t.
28 Vladimir Efimkin PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
29 David Blanco RABOBANK s.t.
30 Vladimir Karpets RABOBANK s.t.
31 Carlos Barredo RABOBANK s.t.
32 Charles Wegelius LIQUIGAS s.t.
33 Christophe Moreau CRÉDIT AGRICOLE + 4'18
34 Christophe Le Mével CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
35 Samuel Plouhinec AGRITUBEL s.t.
36 Moisés Dueñas AGRITUBEL s.t.
37 Jérôme Pineau AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
38 �ngel Vicioso TEAM MILRAM s.t.
39 Iñigo Landaluze EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
40 Sergio Ghisalberti TEAM MILRAM s.t.
41 Gianni Meersman DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
42 Ivan Rovny LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
43 Giampaolo Cheula SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
44 Julien Mazet TEAM ASTANA + 4'52
45 Mickael Buffaz COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
46 David Arroyo CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 5'14
47 Xavier Zandio CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
48 Constantino Zaballa CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
49 Luca Mazzanti LIQUIGAS + 5'55
50 Guido Trentin SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 6'48

GC
1 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 13h22'17
2 Robert Gesink RABOBANK + 1'40
3 Linus Gerdemann QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 1'46
4 Andreas Klöden LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 2'07
5 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC s.t.
6 Michael Rogers T-MOBILE TEAM + 3'01
7 Michael Rasmussen DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 3'24
8 Roman Kreuziger LIQUIGAS + 3'50
9 David Millar DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 4'19
10 Vladimir Karpets RABOBANK + 4'52
11 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 5'16
12 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 5'20
13 Carlos Barredo RABOBANK + 5'38
14 Matija Kvasina PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 5'42
15 Cadel Evans RABOBANK + 5'44
16 David Blanco RABOBANK + 5'45
17 Markus Fothen GEROLSTEINER + 5'49
18 Paolo Savoldelli EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 5'50
19 Xavi Tondo TEAM ASTANA + 5'53
20 David Moncoutié COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 5'57
21 Maxim Iglinskiy TEAM ASTANA + 6'15
22 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC + 6'17
23 Kim Kirchen T-MOBILE TEAM + 6'19
24 Alexander Efimkin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 6'21
25 Matthew Lloyd PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 6'25

KoM
1 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 64
2 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 50
3 Robert Gesink RABOBANK 45
4 Dimitri Fofonov CRÉDIT AGRICOLE 43
5 Andreas Klöden LAMPRE - FONDITAL 32
6 Linus Gerdemann QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 28
7 Christophe Moreau CRÉDIT AGRICOLE 27
8 Mirko Lorenzetto TEAM MILRAM 26
9 Santiago Ojeda UNIBET.COM 26
10 Blaise Sonnery AG2R PRÉVOYANCE 26

THere is a problem with the pics there ll the same.

Hmmm, thats a bug with photobuckets auto-added to the clipboard thingy. will fix it now

It almost looks like it was done as a joke. I almost wanted to laugh at the way it looked. But great win for Contador.

No because I dont take any opportunity I can to make some sort of joke that noone understands

The issue is that in photobucket, when you click on the url below the thumbnail of the picture, it claims to copy the selected text. But in this case, it didnt.

Stage 6

With 20 points on offer for first offer the KoM climb, Lloyd once again went with the break. Ivanov, Breschel and Coppel were with him as the Brit took the full points.


These 4 riders would stay away but Lloyd's win hopes were shattered as Breschel and Ivanov pulled away in the closing stages


You would normally expect Breschel to win in a sprint versus Ivanov


But the Russian triumphed


Dan Lloyd ran out of energy and could not prevent Coppel taking 3rd

1 Sergei Ivanov TEAM ASTANA 3h50'24
2 Matti Breschel TEAM CSC s.t.
3 Jérôme Coppel AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 3'26
4 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
5 Eduard Vorganov EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 6'47
6 Olaf Pollack GEROLSTEINER + 7'52
7 �ngel Vicioso TEAM MILRAM s.t.
8 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
9 Mirko Lorenzetto TEAM MILRAM s.t.
10 Robbie McEwen GEROLSTEINER s.t.
11 Robert Wagner TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
12 Allan Davis TEAM MILRAM s.t.
13 Gregory Baugé TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
14 Enrico Gasparotto LIQUIGAS s.t.
15 José Joaquín Rojas CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
16 Paolo Bettini QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
17 Steven De Jongh QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
18 Hans Dekkers PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
19 Constantino Zaballa CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
20 Geert Steurs PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
21 Marvin Van der Pluijm UNIBET.COM s.t.
22 Fabian Cancellara TEAM CSC s.t.
23 René Haselbacher TEAM ASTANA s.t.
24 Alessandro Petacchi TEAM MILRAM s.t.
25 Maxim Iglinskiy TEAM ASTANA s.t.

KoM
1 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 84
2 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 50
3 Robert Gesink RABOBANK 45
4 Dimitri Fofonov CRÉDIT AGRICOLE 43
5 Andreas Klöden LAMPRE - FONDITAL 33
6 Linus Gerdemann QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 28
7 Christophe Moreau CRÉDIT AGRICOLE 27
8 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC 26
9 Mirko Lorenzetto TEAM MILRAM 26
10 Santiago Ojeda UNIBET.COM 26

ivanov beats breschel in the sprint : LOOOOOL

Matti isn't that bad uphill, is he? xD

Domination for the Dane

You're writing very good! I'm looking forward to TdF

Contador is surely the tour winner

who is close to an experience boost?

any chance of a stats screen?

Ive finished the Dauphine, Tour de Suisse and Eindhoven. Reports will come for them all at some point.

@ schleck93


@wackojackohighcliffe

Wow!
Pluischin, Anton Hagen Manan Efimkin are gonna be amzing

not to mention Nolf and Contador

Let's hope they will be that good IRL too

Efimkin will be of great value in the Vuelta... And Anton will do well too, he'll take a couple of stages for sure...

Efimkin might not ride the Vuelta though, he has already done the Giro



Stage 7

With a massive 150 points on offer today, guess who went with the break? That's right, it was Lloyd. And he took a maximum 80 off the first 2 climbs before the peleton caught the break and saw the favourites attack.

Gomez Marchante, Contador, Eltink, Kreuziger and Fothen got away


Gomez Marchante put in numerous small attacks to try and get away, but Contador simply rode back up to him


Contador then came past to take the full points, aiding Lloyd since Gomez Marchante is his biggest rival in the KoM competition.

Eltink and Gomez Marchante are with Contador as they head towards the final climb.


But as we near the finish, the inevitable happens: Contador pulls away!


Great win for Alberto


Alexander Efimkin put in a brilliant ride, finishing 5th - and is now very close to the top 10.


1 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 6h08'20
2 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC + 1'17
3 Theo Eltink SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 2'35
4 Roman Kreuziger LIQUIGAS + 3'28
5 Alexander Efimkin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 5'33
6 Michael Rogers T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
7 Andreas Klöden LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
8 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC s.t.
9 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 5'54
10 Kim Kirchen T-MOBILE TEAM + 6'06
11 Vladimir Efimkin PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 7'11
12 David Arroyo CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 7'30
13 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 8'11
14 Robert Gesink RABOBANK + 8'24
15 Paolo Savoldelli EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 9'14
16 Maxim Iglinskiy TEAM ASTANA + 9'29
17 Samuel Plouhinec AGRITUBEL + 9'42
18 Linus Gerdemann QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 9'51
19 David Moncoutié COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
20 Matija Kvasina PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 10'10
21 Markus Fothen GEROLSTEINER + 10'27
22 Michael Rasmussen DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 10'36
23 Sergio Ghisalberti TEAM MILRAM + 11'31
24 Vladimir Karpets RABOBANK s.t.
25 Eduardo Gonzalo AGRITUBEL + 11'46
26 Moisés Dueñas AGRITUBEL + 12'12
27 David Millar DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 12'28
28 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
29 Xavi Tondo TEAM ASTANA s.t.
30 Charles Wegelius LIQUIGAS + 13'37
31 Iñigo Landaluze EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 13'48
32 Matthew Lloyd PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
33 Xavier Zandio CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 14'08
34 Toni Colom TEAM ASTANA + 14'47
35 Carlos Barredo RABOBANK + 16'03

GC
1 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 23h28'53
2 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC + 3'24
3 Roman Kreuziger LIQUIGAS + 7'18
4 Andreas Klöden LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 7'40
5 Michael Rogers T-MOBILE TEAM + 8'34
6 Theo Eltink SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 9'38
7 Robert Gesink RABOBANK + 10'04
8 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 11'14
9 Linus Gerdemann QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 11'37
10 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC + 11'50
11 Alexander Efimkin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 11'54
12 Kim Kirchen T-MOBILE TEAM + 12'25
13 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 13'27
14 Michael Rasmussen DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 13'54
15 Vladimir Efimkin PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 14'11
16 Paolo Savoldelli EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 15'04
17 Maxim Iglinskiy TEAM ASTANA + 15'44
18 David Moncoutié COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 15'48
19 Matija Kvasina PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 15'52
20 Markus Fothen GEROLSTEINER + 16'16
21 Vladimir Karpets RABOBANK + 16'23
22 David Arroyo CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 16'37
23 David Millar DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 16'47
24 Samuel Plouhinec AGRITUBEL + 17'27
25 Xavi Tondo TEAM ASTANA + 18'21

KoM
1 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 164
2 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC 131
3 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 120
4 Roman Kreuziger LIQUIGAS 80
5 Sergei Kolesnikov UNIBET.COM 70
6 Michael Rasmussen DISCOVERY CHANNEL 62
7 Theo Eltink SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR 60
8 Vladimir Efimkin PREDICTOR - LOTTO 54
9 Andreas Klöden LAMPRE - FONDITAL 49
10 Robert Gesink RABOBANK 47

Is there a TT for Efmkin to pass Sastre?

No but Sastre is a much better TTer than Efimkin anyway



Stage 8

We take 3 laps around a 60km circuit to end this race


90 KoM points on offer and Lloyd's lead is just 33 points. So for yet another stage in a row, he attacks.

Zaballa takes the full points at the top. with Lloyd taking 26 for 2nd.


Gomez Marchante does not choose to attack for points, instead teammate Sastre joines the many points chaser and this means that Lloyd's lead is 59 with just 60 points left. This basically means the jersey is Lloyd's so he need not follow his companions on the 2nd ascent.

Zaballa again takes the full allocation, while Lloyd crosses in 3rd.

With the break out of the way, its the turn of the big guns on the final climb. Contador saw that his blue bar was dropping so decided to attack before he was not able to so therefore was not the strongest attacker today, Gesink was.


Gesink led over the top and into the descent, Contador has not given up though.


Gesink descends well, Contador is closing on but is he fast enough?


No. Gesink wins


Theres frustration for Efimkin in his attempts to get into the top 10 though. He started the day 4 seconds behind Sastre but finished alongside Sastre, taking 10th. It looked like he had got into the top 10 due to moving ahead of Gerdemann .. but he fell behind Rasmussen so 11th it is.

1 Robert Gesink RABOBANK 5h09'23
2 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 22
3 Theo Eltink SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 1'23
4 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC s.t.
5 Michael Rasmussen DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
6 Vladimir Efimkin PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 2'50
7 Michael Rogers T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
8 Roman Kreuziger LIQUIGAS s.t.
9 Andreas Klöden LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
10 Alexander Efimkin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 4'54
11 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC s.t.
12 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 5'26
13 Linus Gerdemann QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
14 David Arroyo CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
15 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
16 Markus Fothen GEROLSTEINER s.t.
17 Moisés Dueñas AGRITUBEL s.t.
18 Xavi Tondo TEAM ASTANA s.t.
19 David Moncoutié COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
20 Kim Kirchen T-MOBILE TEAM + 6'17
21 Carlos Barredo RABOBANK s.t.
22 Charles Wegelius LIQUIGAS + 6'47
23 Eduardo Gonzalo AGRITUBEL + 7'21
24 Paolo Savoldelli EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 7'42
25 Sergio Ghisalberti TEAM MILRAM + 8'11
26 Matija Kvasina PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 9'12
27 Steve Zampieri COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 11'15
28 Maxim Iglinskiy TEAM ASTANA + 11'39
29 Toni Colom TEAM ASTANA s.t.
30 Vladimir Karpets RABOBANK s.t.
31 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
32 Tim Klinger GEROLSTEINER s.t.
33 Matthew Lloyd PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 12'43
34 Nicolas Vogondy AGRITUBEL s.t.
35 Luca Mazzanti LIQUIGAS + 13'15
36 �ngel Vicioso TEAM MILRAM + 13'39
37 Guido Trentin SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
38 Giampaolo Cheula SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 14'15
39 Santiago Ojeda UNIBET.COM + 14'59
40 David Millar DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 15'19


11 Alexander Efimkin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 16'32
12 Vladimir Efimkin PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 16'45
13 Linus Gerdemann QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 16'47
14 Kim Kirchen T-MOBILE TEAM + 18'26
15 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 18'37
16 David Moncoutié COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 20'58
17 Markus Fothen GEROLSTEINER + 21'26
18 David Arroyo CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 21'47
19 Paolo Savoldelli EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 22'30
20 Xavi Tondo TEAM ASTANA + 23'31
21 Matija Kvasina PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 24'48
22 Moisés Dueñas AGRITUBEL + 25'45
23 Eduardo Gonzalo AGRITUBEL + 26'15
24 Charles Wegelius LIQUIGAS + 26'42
25 Maxim Iglinskiy TEAM ASTANA + 27'07
26 Carlos Barredo RABOBANK + 27'42
27 Vladimir Karpets RABOBANK + 27'46
28 Sergio Ghisalberti TEAM MILRAM + 28'03
29 David Millar DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 31'50
30 Toni Colom TEAM ASTANA + 32'39
31 Matthew Lloyd PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 32'40
32 Samuel Plouhinec AGRITUBEL + 33'18
33 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 34'09
34 Steve Zampieri COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 37'36
35 Iñigo Landaluze EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 37'38
74 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1h23'03
118 Rafaâ Chtioui DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 2h04'52
144 Laszló Bodrogi DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 2h35'18
148 Jens Mouris DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 2h42'46

Points
1 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 122
2 Robert Gesink RABOBANK 62
3 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC 58
4 Linus Gerdemann QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 58
5 Michael Rogers T-MOBILE TEAM 47
6 Andreas Klöden LAMPRE - FONDITAL 43
7 Michael Rasmussen DISCOVERY CHANNEL 40
8 Roman Kreuziger LIQUIGAS 40
9 Alexander Efimkin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 31
10 Theo Eltink SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR 31
11 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX 28
12 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 27
13 David Millar DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 25

KoM
1 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 212
2 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC 149
3 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 146
4 Michael Rasmussen DISCOVERY CHANNEL 104
5 Roman Kreuziger LIQUIGAS 94
6 Vladimir Efimkin PREDICTOR - LOTTO 84
7 Robert Gesink RABOBANK 77
8 Theo Eltink SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR 74
9 Sergei Kolesnikov UNIBET.COM 70
10 Constantino Zaballa CAISSE D'EPARGNE 62

dominating GC victory

next the tour for Contador

Nope

Next for AC is Eindhoven.
Then the Spanish Championships. I hope to win them even though Smoothie has disappeared again so I wont have any decent spanish champ jerseys to use, should I win.